HERB - Re: Beeswax

[Gaylin Walli]

Isrith wrote:

>I hope I can get my hands on Gerard's Herbal at the library. I had a
>sneaking suspicion that is where I would eventually find it . I've been
>concentrating on other elements of my project but noticed that this is
>the one thing I wasn't coming across in my books.

The edition of Gerard that I have is....HUGE. It wouldn't suprise me
if you could not get it or if they wouldn't let it out of the library.
The smaller versions that I've seen are not complete editions of
Gerard, but may still be useful to you. I'm not sure, having only
glanced at them in passing. Perhaps someone else on the list might
have better information about other editions of Gerard that would
be more accessible.

>I have never seen the Angus Castus manuscript. Is it easily obtained?
>I'd be interested in getting my hands on it!

Absolutely not easy, much to many a person's dismay. It took me over
a year of looking to find one, and that one had to be shipped from Sweden.

Several herbals which used the Agnus Castus as the base of information,
are quite easily obtainable today. Turner's Herbal, Fuch's Herbal, the
herbal by Bancke. It's not that far off to say that a very many of
the early printing press herbals were based at least in part on the
Agnus Castus manuscript. So, in looking for citations and sources
that are pre-1600 for your reference to beeswax, you could most
certainly try those. I can give you a full list of herbals supposed to
be based on the Agnus Castus manuscripts sometime if you're
interested.

Also consider looking into Gervase Markham's very accessible
"The English Housewife" which is certainly obtainable through
interlibrary loan and available for purchase through many an
online bookseller for a reasonable price. Also I can't think of any
recipes off the top of my head, being a household manual, of sorts,
it is a good place to begin looking.

Consider also this site online:

http://janeway.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportat2.html

This is the site housing the electronic version of Giambattista della Porta's
(John-Baptiste Porta) 1584 document called "Natural Magick" (the
Latin version was called Magiae Naturalis). The version online is the
one that Porta translated himself into English. You probably want the
4th, 8th, 9th, and 11th books (I'd have to look closely to be sure; I'm
remembering these off the top of my head).

>Thanks for your offer of direct quotes. If for some reason I can't find
>Gerard I will certainly take you up on that.

It's not trouble and I'd certainly offer to anyone else on the list looking
for something in particular, though with the caveat that it might take
me a day or two to get it in order (the book weighs a ton and is a pain
to look through).

>Maybe I can return the favour someday,      Isrith.

I'm sure anyone else on the list would have offered the same.
Don't worry about it. Put some good karma into the world. :)

Jasmine
Iasmin de Cordoba, gwalli at infoengine.com

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